Love of a Soul
by N.V.9
Summary: When Naruto dies, he's unable to leave. Can Sasuke set him free?


**Look toward profile/bio for disclaimer and anything else involving this story.**

Death was supposed to be the last thing anyone ever felt or saw. It was the giant utter nothingness that we all saw when we closed our eyes for the very last time. It's supposed to pull us under and never let us go, taking us wherever the dead rest. It was what anyone with any thought believed would happen.

Though some did say you could go to either heaven or hell. Heaven if you met God's standards and hell if the devil wanted you more. There were many versions of both of these places but none of them were meant to apply to me.

When I was preparing to die at fourteen, I was afraid. I was already alone in life and I was going to be alone in death. I didn't want to be alone.

Yet I was used to it, so why should my death be any different then my life? I would not go to heaven for some sin the nun had told me I commited before I even took my first breath of air. She never told me what it was that I did. Hell did not want me. She would say, 'Even the devil despises you'. So I grew up believing I would never see either place. Only the nothingness that the truly unwanted would go.

The day I died, I believed I cried. I cried for the torture that would follow me, stalk me into forever. A nothingness that would take great joy in my aching heart. Or so I belived.

For when I died this did not happen. Instead of the nothingness I was expecting, very little changed at all. At first I didn't understand. Did I not die? I remember opening my eyes just as quickly as I closed them. I did not feel the illness eating at me anymore. In fact, I did not feel anything but pure surprise that I survied another night.

It was only when I faced my bed did I realize the truth. There, covered by the ragged, thin blanket was me. How could this be, I had wondered, I am not there because I am here. I do not know how long I stared at myself. I do, however, know that when the door opened and the nun came in, I became truly afraid.

Not because she was there, no not that, but because when she walked in she had walked right through me as if I was not. I realize now how accurate that was, but then I was ignorant. I was a fool to even try and gain the silent nun's attention, begging her to tell me what was happening. She never heard me though.

When others came into my room to remove my body I ran. Ran as fast as I could through the open doorways, and by accident, a wall. Yet no matter how much I ran or how far, I always ended back in my room. Eventually I grew weary of running. I just stood there and watched as my room was emptied and locked forever.

I remember thinking that perhaps I was not good enough for nothing either. Heaven, Hell, nor Nothing wanted me.

Only when the sun rose and I slowly began to fade away did I think, 'Finally.' For I was going to wherever it be that I would go. I do not know where I went when the sun rose, each time I try to remember, I am faced with blank images. It was as if I ceased to be for the percious hours the sun graced the world with it's light. Then when it fell behind the mountains I was back again. I believed it all a dream but looking around I saw that it was not.

I cried for the first year that I was there. No one could see me. No one could hear me. I would wander around the orphange in hopes that I could speak to someone.

If ever anyone wished to to torture a poor soul, exclude them like this. To be there but completely ignored. To not recieve a glance, glare, or heated remark. Was this the nothingness the nun spoke of, I always wondered. In the end I decided no.

It would be many years later, after the last nun died and the orphanage closed, that the first person saw me.

Like always, I was welcoming the silence of the building, when I saw a man with long dark hair make his way inside of my prison.

Curiousity ate at my mind as I followed him through the whole place. I wondered why a man would visit this place at this time of night when all others rest to prepare for their next day. Still I was so curious and happy to see another soul that I stayed with the man until he entered the room that was mine.

The lock had long ago rusted away and with just a strong push it opened. Not thinking anything of it, I walked in behind him. Watching him nod to himself as he glanced around. When he turned to the door he froze. At first I did not know why. Glancing behind me I expected to see something but all I saw was the shadows of the hallway.

"Don't hurt me." The man had cried. Turning back to him I was confused. Who was going to hurt him? Then I realized he was speaking to me.

"Can you see me?" I ask him.

The man nodded and fell to his knees praying for something I did not understand.

"I won't hurt you." I promised. It was as if he was waiting for those words to come forth, before he ran. I tried to stop him but he was gone.

Over the next few years it happened again. Three times to be exact. It soon became a attraction of sorts. I would stand by the window and watch children and adults alike try to force their friends to enter my home. Three times people entered. Always they headed to my room and always they ran after seeing me.

Soon I grew tired of following the poor souls and let them wander around my home on their own. Slowly the rumors died down that a ghost lived in this forgotten building and I was once again alone. It was comforting, I suppose. No one to scream after they saw me. No one to beg me not to kill them. No one to fear me.

Then one day it changed. I was no longer by myself.

One night I appeared in my room hearing voices coming from below. Curiousity once again ate at me and I followed the sweet sound to the dining room. Around the table sat four people. Each so beautiful I thought they were angels sent to mock me. There was an older man and woman. The man had a air of power around him and the woman was his counterpart as peace settled around her.

Then there was the two boys. A mix of both parents. I learned then that they were the Uchiha's and that they had bought my home that day. I learned that they planned to fix the broken pieces until it matched what they wanted. I stayed with them all night long until they decided to fall asleep in our sitting room.

So for a long time I watched them and learned more about them. The oldest son was named Itachi. He was preparing to go to college in the fall. To be honest, that was all that I really learned of him.

For you see, I was more interested in the youngest son Sasuke. I do not know why but he commanded my attention like no other before him. The second he would walk in a room I was drawn to him. When he left I would stand by the door waiting for him to return. Sometimes it would take nights before I saw him again.

For year It went on like this until one night I 'woke' and he was there in my room, which I learned he had chosen for his own. Was it fate then that he had chose it? I do not know, I was simply overjoyed that this boy was here, for now he could see me. You see, I believed myself in love with him. He was perfect in a way no other could be. He was graceful like a dancer. He was silent and watchful but oh so alluring. He rarely smiled but when he did it was breathtaking. What I would give to make him mine. He was very wise for a boy of fifteen. He was also very brave, never did I see him flinch away in fear from anything.

Yet I still could not bring myself to let him see me. Whenever he was in our room, I stayed outside the door and if it was closed I would wait beside the door and just listen to him. So long as I saw or heard him I was content.

Then one night while he rested, I sat on our window panel and sang. I do not know what I was singing, just that I was. When I heard the bed rustle I stopped and turned.

He was looking at me with that watchful gaze of his. For the longest time we stared into eachothers eyes. It was I that turned away first. Fearing the rejection on the face of the boy I came to love I ran.

I did not return for many nights. Of course I could not leave this house, but I stayed clear of my room until I could no longer resist this ache that demanded I see the face of the one I loved.  
I returned to my room to see him sitting in the center of the bed. He turned when he heard my footsteps and before I could decided what to do he spoke.

"Don't run." he pleaded softly as he slowly got off of his bed. He held his hand out as if trying to calm a wild beast. Though I wanted to leave I could not ignore my love's command. "I have been waiting up many nights to see you again." he whispered.

So that was why he seemed utterly exhasuted whenever I chanced to see him.

"I'm Sasuke." He smiled uncertainly, then he just stood there waiting. I was confused at first, then I realized he wanted my name.

"Naruto." I had once had a last name but it so long ago faded from my memory. I was surprised I remembered my first name.

Sasuke smiled pleased that I understood him. "You have been watching me."

I froze unsure of what to say or do.

"Since I got here I felt that someone was always there just out of my reach but I didn't really understand." he went on.

Slowly I found myself nodding. I could not deny my love the truth.

"Why?"

I did not speak for the longest time as I stared into his beautiful eyes. Eyes that were waiting for an answer I was unsure of how to answer. "You intrigue me." I finally said. I could not tell him 'because I love you'. What fool would say such a thing on the first actual meeting?

He blushed and looked away but still he asked, "Why?"

I could not answer that, though I so very wished to say it, I did not. Instead I turned away from him and gazed out the darken window.

"Don't go." He pleaded. Go? Why would I go? He must have seen the confusion written upon my face as his blushed deepened, "I was hoping we could talk."

And so we did. We spoke all night about myself, him, our lives and anything that came to pass. When the sun began to rise, and I once again began to fade, he asked me if I would come back. I told him I would as soon as the sun set and he nodded.

That night, when I returned, he was waiting for me and for many nights after he was there.

The day he turned eighteen, I knew what we had would be over. Soon he would follow in his brother's footsteps and leave. I had yet to tell him that I loved him, but for some reason I knew that he must have known, just as I knew that he loved me as well.

That night we spoke nonstop, almost afraid that if we did go silent it would be over. I never wanted to say good-bye to him, but to love means you must let them free. How I wished I could go with him. Moments before the sun would rise, Sasuke turned to me and called me close. Unsure of what he wanted, I did as he asked. When I was standing in front of him he leaned his taller body over my never changing one and kissed me. He was the first to say 'I love you'. With tears of joy falling down my face and the sun beginning to rise, I told him the same.

The next night I came, he was gone. Of course, I cried but I was also happy because he loved me. For the next four years I was lonely but never alone. Sasuke always came back on his vacations and on weekends when he could. When he was not there, he would leave me a picture of him. He tried to take one of me, but no matter what he did or how he took it, I could not be caught on film.

Finally he graduated at the top of his class in business and marketing. One day he would take over and join his brother in their father's company but for now he was with me. For many nights we stayed in bed. I would listen to his heartbeat and pretend that the one I did not have matched his own.

After a few days of peace, his father decided that Sasuke would go to America and take over the leadership there. Itachi was already in charge of Europes corporations. I cried that night so hard as I heard my love arguing with his father. Begging the man not to send him away. In the end Sasuke could not sway him.

As Sasuke entered our room, I ran to him, never wanting to let go. Sasuke held me and took me to bed to lay beside him. We stayed that way forever it seemed like it. And when the sun came to call me home, Sasuke whispered something into my ear but I do not remember what it was he told me.

When I came the next night he was gone again. I did not see him for many years to come. When I did finally get to see him he was twenty six. I smiled and jumped into his arms when I came back to life that night. Sasuke laughed and held me tightly in his arms like he would never let go.

"Naruto," He whispered joyfully into my ear, "I know how to set you free."

I pulled away from him with a frown. I did not want to be free. I wanted to stay with him. Did he not love me anymore?

"I know the reason you can't move on." He went on walking excitedly around the room.

I sat on the bed in a numb silence. His love for me was no more, I thought to myself. Silently my tears fell down my face and when Sasuke noticed he knelt in front of me.

"Naruto what's wrong?" He asked me.  
"You don't love me anymore." I forced out in a whisper.

"What?" at his confusion I went on.

"You want to send me away. You don't love me."  
"Naruto, I love you more then anything. I would never send you away." He declared pulling me into his arms.

"Then why..."

"Remember the night I left?" at my nod he went on, "I told you I would figure out what was holding you to this place and I did."

When I stayed silent he moved us to lay on the bed.

"You see, souls are always tied to the place they died and the time they took their last breath. You past away here at night and so that is when you come back."

"I know this."

"Let me finish... Okay so there are many reasons that a soul stays behind, unfinish business, they are lost, someone has them tied down and refuses to let go, but all of those are wrong."  
"How?" I asked confused.  
"Naruto, the reason ghost can't move on is because they are only half a soul. In order to move on to the next world you need to wait for your other half. Naruto I'm your other half." Sasuke said grinning happily.

"I don't understand." I said sitting up to look down at him.  
"When a soul is created it is ripped in half. Each half are then sent to find the other to gain the greatest reward in life. When, and only when, this happens are the two souls allowed to move on together when both pass on to start the next life together side by side. Ghost aren't here because of things left forgotten or anything like that. There are ghost because their soul mate has yet to die. If they die knowing eachother they are linked for life. If they die apart they are sent back here to start again."  
"I still don't understand." I said again.

"Naruto," Sasuke said gently holding my face between his hands. "If I die today, we can both move on and live together forever in the next life."  
It was then I realized what Sasuke was saying. He planned to kill himself. "No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" he jerked back in surprise.

"I won't let you do it." I said moving away from him. "I won't ask you to die for me."

"Naruto, you have been here for centuries, surely-"  
"No. I love you too much to ask this of you. Sasuke, if you go through with this, I will never forgive you." With that I walked out of the room. I heard him calling my name but I knew once I stepped over that threshold, he would never see me. When he ran right by me trying in vane to find me I looked away.

Three days later Sasuke was gone again. For those three days he tried to call me back but I would not hear him.

I did not see him for a long time afterwards. When he was thirty-seven, he came back. I was sitting in my room just watching the stars outside the window when the door opened behind me. I did not need to turn around to know it was him.

He sat beside me and we stayed in silence just watching the stars.

"Is it weird that I am now in love with a child?" He asked taking my hand into his laps. I turned and smiled at him. Though I was in the body of a teen, I was still centuries older then him.

"I'm sorry." He whispered cupping my face with one hand and leaning down to kiss me. "I did not mean to hurt you."

That was the last we ever spoke of that night.

I soon learned that Sasuke was going to stay. His father had retired and he was talking his place. I could not have been happier. Sasuke would not leave me again. Every night that I came back he was there to wait for me. Nights became months, then months became years and at the age of seventy-six, Sasuke took his last breath in our bed as he closed his eyes.

I was waiting for him though. I watched him sit up and leave his body behind as he grew younger before my eyes and stood before me in the body of the young teen he was when I first saw him. Pulling me close he kissed me.

"Are you ready to go Naruto?" He asked me.

"Yes." I whispered and took his hand. Together we faded away into the calming light of our own special heaven.

X~x~X

Sasuke's funeral was held days later. Itachi, though wrinkled and weak with age, came against doctors orders to say his goodbyes. Making his way up to Sasuke's old room he laid upon the bed and with a knowing smile rasped, "Sasuke I hope you and Naruto are finally happy."


End file.
